Mendoza stops Sandoval to win WBA and WBC flyweight titles

Sergio Mendoza arrived in Chicago as a replacement challenger and leaves with two world titles. Ricardo Sandoval leaves with the painful discovery that recovering from a knockdown and escaping danger are rather different things.

Mendoza floored the defending champion three times before referee Mark Nelson stopped their scheduled 12 round contest at 1 min 46 sec of the fifth. The WBA and WBC flyweight belts changed hands at Wintrust Arena on Saturday night, October 10, with Sandoval upright but taking further punishment after his third visit to the canvas.

For the Mexican southpaw, known as Yoreme, this was a remarkable reversal. In April, Thanongsak Simsri had stopped him in the second round of an IBF light flyweight title challenge in Japan. Six months later, competing four pounds higher, Mendoza dismantled a unified champion. His explanation was emphatic: making 108 pounds had diminished him.

“I’ve always said it: the weight was affecting me,” he told DAZN.

There was nothing diminished about the punches which repeatedly broke Sandoval’s resistance. Mendoza, 26, improved from 27 wins and one defeat, with 23 knockouts, to 28 wins and 24 stoppages. Sandoval, 27, dropped from 27 wins and two defeats to 27 wins and three defeats, his 18 knockouts unchanged.

The champion from Rialto, California, was making his first defence of the belts he had taken from Kenshiro Teraji by split decision in Japan on July 30, 2025. That achievement had established his toughness against world class opposition. Here, toughness kept him in a fight which his defence could not control.

Sandoval had originally prepared for Oscar Collazo, the champion at 105 pounds, before a rib injury forced the Puerto Rican out. Mendoza’s appointment was announced on September 25. The challenger brought an altogether different physical problem: at 5 ft 8 in, he stood two inches taller than Sandoval. Both comfortably made the flyweight limit, Sandoval weighing 111.6 pounds and Mendoza 111.4.

There was an immediate contest over distance. The orthodox Sandoval sought to bridge the gap with his right hand; Mendoza met his advances with the southpaw left and counters downstairs. Sandoval’s pressure ensured that he was involved. It did not ensure that he was safe.

The opening round produced six landed punches apiece according to CompuBox. Mendoza nevertheless supplied an early warning that approaching him would carry a price. His threat came through the middle and from the body, giving Sandoval more than one line of attack to consider.

The second round made the difference brutally clear. Sandoval answered with his own body work and right hands, but Mendoza’s right hook put him down. A left uppercut sent him to the floor again before the bell. Two knockdowns transformed a competitive exchange into an emergency for the champion.

Mendoza landed 14 of 28 power punches in that round. Sandoval was willing to trade, but willingness was an inadequate substitute for avoiding the return. The challenger’s ability to hurt him mattered far more than the modest gap in their overall punch totals.

There was no immediate surrender. Sandoval fought back through the third and fourth, and the fourth offered his best evidence that the contest might yet turn. He landed 19 punches to Mendoza’s 14, including 16 power shots, and his right hands found the challenger’s head.

But the recovery concealed an unresolved problem. Sandoval could hit Mendoza without taking away Mendoza’s capacity to hurt him. The challenger remained patient enough to find another opening rather than treating the earlier knockdowns as permission to become careless.

A right hook in the fifth produced the third knockdown. Sandoval rose again, as he had after the previous two, but Mendoza followed with further heavy punches. Nelson intervened while the champion remained on his feet. Getting up had earned Sandoval another chance; the punishment which followed exhausted it.

CompuBox recorded Mendoza landing 63 of 225 punches, against Sandoval’s 49 of 183. The challenger connected with 54 of 135 power shots, 40 per cent, compared with 42 of 143, 29.4 per cent. Mendoza landed 21 body punches to Sandoval’s 18. His jab contributed nine connections from 90 attempts; Sandoval’s produced seven from 40.

The final round was especially revealing. All 11 of Mendoza’s landed punches were power shots, from 19 thrown. Sandoval managed six connections in reply.

Mendoza’s celebrations brought tears rather than bravado. He dedicated the victory to his brother, who died two months ago, having travelled with his team but without family or friends. Trainer Alfredo Caballero’s fighter also became Hermosillo’s first male boxer to win a full world championship.

The Golden Boy and Most Valuable Promotions show, broadcast by DAZN, was headed by Floyd Schofield against Lucas Bahdi for the vacant WBA lightweight title. Mendoza ensured that its supporting championship contest demanded attention of its own. For Sandoval, the first defence ended his reign. For the late replacement, two belts supplied a definitive answer to what he could do at flyweight.

I give Sergio Mendoza all credit here. He took the opportunity and made Ricardo Sandoval pay for coming into punching range without realising what was waiting for him. This was more than a puncher landing something lucky. Mendoza’s southpaw left kept finding a route through the middle, and his body punching gave Sandoval another problem to think about.

What stands out to me is the difference between applying pressure and controlling an opponent. Sandoval wanted to close the distance, but Mendoza was catching him on the way in. Against a taller southpaw, you cannot keep entering along the same line and expect your willingness to fight to protect you. You need to make him miss, change the angle, then work. Sandoval’s approach left Mendoza opportunities to counter with punches that carried real weight.

I liked Mendoza’s punch selection. The left downstairs mattered because Sandoval could not concentrate entirely on protecting his chin. The uppercut and right hook gave the challenger ways to punish him as the distance shortened. That is how you make reach useful, by choosing the right punch for where your opponent is going.

Sandoval deserves respect for fighting back. He found success with his right hand and threatened to get himself back into the contest. But answering a damaging punch does not mean you have corrected the defensive mistake that allowed it through.

For me, Mendoza’s patience during that resistance was the mark of the performance. He kept looking for his opening, found it again, and forced the stoppage. Sandoval showed courage, but his defensive work was poor. Mendoza earned those belts through timing and punch selection as much as power.